Translation: Practicing Rewriting in Context

Abstract

Translation serves to provide a natural context in which a translator practices the role of a second writer. This natural writing environment accumulates the experience as well as the expertise of applying various translation and linguistic theories to tackle textual problems, being them lexical, semantic, cultural or merely grammatical. Translation is the only field in which two languages are consciously and unconsciously practiced at the whole levels throughout the translation activity. Written texts that require translation ought to be understood by translators as the starting point for the rewriting (translation) process. Translation, then, can be handled as a writing practice that makes use of the appropriate translation techniques and procedures, observing contextual differences. Translators write in almost every field, from simple to highly specialized texts. In translation, translators rewrite the Source Language Text in a Target Language that projects their competence in that TL, provided that they must thoroughly understand the respective ST; maintaining some sort of relevance or similarity between their reproduced TT, and its corresponding ST. This paper emphasizes the usefulness of translation practice in enhancing writing competence in various writing settings.